Australian Response

Got a link to the story? I can't find any reports of a story quoting those figures.

There was an incident last July, in which the NSW Director Health (a civil servant, not a minister) spoke at a press conference about hospitalisations, reporting that 141 people were in hospital and of 43 of those were in intensive care. He then said that, of the 43, all bar one were vaccinated, and the remaining one had received one dose.

This was queried, and — still in the same press conference — he corrected himself. " “I think I misspoke before . . .So of the 43 people in intensive care units, 42 have not been vaccinated. One person had just one dose of vaccine – incomplete vaccine.” 

Vaccine misinformation groups, however, eagerly excerpted the mistaken version from the video of the press conference and have widely circulated it as "proof" that the vaccine is useless. To compoun the misunderstanding, the misinformation groups frequently present the "all bar one" statement as referring to all 141 hospitalisations, not to the 43 cases in ICU.

It has been repeatedly debunked, but people who get their information primarily from Facebook and the like may never learn this.

Is it possible that what you heard is a distorted version of this?

On edit: Oh, wait, found it. Reported here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-01/coronacheck-martin-foley-vaccination-gaffe/100504420

As you surmise, the Minister misspoke, and has since corrected himself. And, as with last time, lying liars who lie have excerpted the mistake from the video and are circulating it, because it amuses them when people die unnecessarily.

1 million West Australians are now double jabbed (37% roughly) and 80% of those eligible for a vaccine have either had their first one or are booked in for it. Still a long way to go but progress all the same.

I agree, it;s a great project and they are talented lads, but the glee at the end .... jesus, have they been so brainwashed ?

Small small step in the right direction, but just for Australians for now.

Maybe late 2022 for tourism again - but will need to quarantine and take lots of PCR's ... not worth it for the majority.

Perhaps in 5-10 years time for "normal" tourism again.

Thank christ I'm not looking to go to Au. any time soon ...

You're happy with an 18 month rolling lockdown instead of a few quick ones? Each to their own I guess

Not all of Australia is in a shitehole, 4 of the states are enjoying a near normal life and have been for most of the last 18 months. Gatherings, crowds at games, concerts, festivals... Sure getting in and out of the country is a hassle but it's a small one

You seem unaware of the irony in your supercillious opinion. Australians enjoyed social freedoms while Ireland was locked down and you couldn't travel around Europe as you pleased. Now it's their turn to pay the piper - 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. Ireland was the sh​ithole lockdown capital of the world for a good while there, not sure where you are finding the motivation for your false sense of superiority.

How did you get around the fines?

"The Government is seeking to increase fines for non-essential international travel from €500 to €2,000.

Speaking in the Dáil, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that around 60% of international travellers arriving into Ireland are returning Irish holiday makers.

He told Labour's Duncan Smith that "there is a sense that €500 is not a sufficient disincentive to travel abroad". https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/0210/1196272-travel-fines/

"virus policing Gardai hand out over 15,300 fines for Covid-19 rule breaches with over 2,300 dished out at house parties"

Do you actually live in ireland; You wouldn't be spoofing now, would you? This Australia bad, Irish freedom great shtick is well passed triggering my BS meter.

It's all relative.

One person's 60k at a sports event is another person's weekend away in a different city/country.

This thread is a COVID response big willy contest

Yeah the death part is striking. Queensland has the same population as Ireland and have had only 7 deaths, 7! Ireland has had 750 times more deaths.

Yea that dude has some pretty dumb opinions, Im much happier with the quick lockdowns

Gral6 doesn't care about that, though. Whether infection control measures save any lives doesn't enter into his evaluation of them at all. It has never crossed his mind that this might be at all relevant.

(In fact, judging from his latest post, he sees the vastly higher Irish death rate as a positive bonus, an achievement. But I'm going to be charitable and assume he was drunk when he posted that.)

It worked for them, for the most part. While Delta rendered the goal of elimination moot, NZ still managed to avoid thousands of Covid deaths while keeping their internal economy completely open.

I know a lot of people will point to their dropping of Zero covid as indications of a failure, but they have 27 deaths in total, compared to our 5,000-something.

Their vaccination programme had a very poor start, but they're well motoring now. Ultimately they will come out of this with a very low social cost; few deaths and cumulatively very little time spent in lockdown.

Hopefully NZ's decision to drop Zero covid will cut the legs from under any of our home-grown commentators who still believe we should be closing the schools.

If NZ, NSW and Vict have all now abandoned Zero Covid, will WA, Queensland and the others persist with it regardless ?

I would imagine that if Delta gets any kind of foothold in those states that they won't bother with any lockdowns and will switch strategies instead.

The leader of WA seems determined for zero at any cost

WA is probably a bit of an outlier. The mining industry has generated a windfall for the State Govt there with a record surplus for the 20/21 financial year of AUD$5.6 billion. Put that in the context when most other governments around the world are borrowing at record levels. Real money that funds that funds infrastructure & societal services.

Secondly their geographic location makes it easier to implement and maintain a hard border from the other states. In doing so the State Government has the cash rolling in and zero covid effectively so they will be very keen to protect that.

Basically life has been normal for the most part across the entire pandemic with the only real restriction being on overseas travel the whole time and intermittently with the certain states. Im not saying its perfect, but far better than most places in the developed world when you think of the personal toll the pandemic has had on people in terms of ill health, lost loved ones, mental health & financial worries for those that can least afford it.

She doesnt say it there either?

The quote at the end says "our strategy remains"

Philip Nolan disagrees:

Ardern is doing the usual politician's thing of saying that This Was Always The Plan; Therefore The Plan Has Not Changed.

The ABC reports her as saying that "her strategy was never to have zero cases, but to aggressively stamp out the virus". On this view, while there was in fact zero cases, the most effective, least restrictive and lowest-cost way of "aggressively stamping" was to maintain zero cases through strict travel restrictions. But zero cases wasn't the aim; it was a means to an end. Now that there isn't zero cases, the balance shifts and other "aggressive stamping" strategies make more sense. So nothing has changed. See?

By then they'll be in a similar situation to other 1st world countries,Covid will be a disease that's dealt with by vaccines and that's how it'll be managed.The difference is their economy hasn't taken the same hit,they had a tiny fraction of our deaths and for the most part life went on as normal.

I'd have to conclude they definitely came out of the whole thing best than most countries.

Yes I agree,not every country had the natural advantages they did but they played their deck excellently.

I'm thinking NZ a bit better the Aus but again it's not exactly comparing like with like.